Television messaging has been described in documents such as WO 00/44173 to the present inventor. In the same document a system that provides for recording a respondent message was also described. The user records a response, which is captured and then transmitted to the originator of the message. The system may be used for generation, as well as for responding to, messages. Different methods of messaging have been described by Different methods of messaging have been described by the like of U.S. Pat. No. 5,844,552 to Gaughan et al, Hsu et al in WO 98/56188, by WO 00/44173 to Bartfeld—the present inventor, and by others. WO 00/44173 has other applications pending in the US and other countries around the world. Television based messaging is a growing trend that offers ready access to messaging emanating from different sources, utilizing the television wide bandwidth and ready availability to provide easy access to the electronic messaging domain.
Recording the user voice is not always the best approach. It requires a voice capture device, i.e. a microphone, to be placed either in proximity to the television or the set-top box, or in proximity to the user. Placing the microphone in proximity to the TV or the set-top box gives rise to problems of environmental noise, and users are often moving around. Additionally, often the user is reluctant to record his voice due to privacy issues, or not wanting to disturb others.
While the internet and other digital communications means allow the delivery of text messages, voice based messaging systems such as voice mail, allow access to the message using commonly available device such as telephones. By eliminating the need for a data reading device, the messages become accessible remotely or to users that do not have computers handy.
The translation of text to speech (TXTS hereinafter) is well known in the art. It is commonly used in such systems as banking and other automated response systems, as well as for use by people with speech or site disabilities. It is mainly used to translate data from machine to a user, not from user to user, as generally ample speech transmission medium such a telephone, voice mail, or simply speaking at audible range, are abundant, readily available and well known. It is not commonly used for messaging as data messaging is directed to data enabled devices.
It is therefore advantageous to provide a mechanism to transform data messages, entered via keyboards and the like, to voice for delivery to voice enabled services. The present invention is directed to a method and device for doing so.